San Cristobal I

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Hey Everyone 😊

So my first week on Galapagos is over and it's been exciting to say the least!
Upon my arrival at San Cristobal I was first of all hit by the ridiculous heat. Way way way warmer than Quito or Mindo as a matter of fact. I was being picked up by the cook, Lydia and the taxi driver, Herlin (who is really lovely and smiley and looks a bit like the man on the pringles boxes😊 ). They took me all the way up to the Station which is a 40 minute drive. The views here are spectacular and on San Cristobal the environment changes incredible amounts when you move up. It's arid here at the coast and humid and warm and rainy at the Station where I live. With like a gazillion mosquitos. Anyways!
On my arrival Eduardo (a coordinator who sadly has now left) showed me my room and just generally around. So the Stations is organised like this: there's the kitchen which is about 3 minutes walk away from the old house where I live (there's also a new house where other volunteers live as well), there the greenhouse where we grow plants and stuff, production where we grow our own food and yeah. That's it. Sourrounded by Mora and Mosquitos.
I then got my Orientation from Miguel who is the guy in charge at the moment and then he, Michele and I went to go and pick Mora.
Mora is the plant which basically keeps us occupied all day long. It's a super invasive mixture of raspberry and blackberry and it basically kills every other plant because it's so aggresive and competitive. And it has loads of thorns. Which hurt. A lot. But it's also very tasty so we used the berries we picked that day to make a pie! Hurray!
At the moment there are about 20 people at the Station from all over the world. Israel, Germany, America, Switzerland and Sweden. And they are all very interesting. Slightly difficult at times but also lovely.
So yeah. Because the guy who owns the interent cafe I'm currently at is dying to close to have his siesta (lazy person!!) this will have to be a very short one. So some more info about what I've been doing:
Loads of cutting of Mora using the machete (I almost cut my own foot at the start which made me really happy to have boots!!), planting endemic plants and sleeping! it's all very tiring but good work!
We also went to swim in a waterfall which is close by on Monday, didn't have any water on Friday which meant we had to go and fetch some from the river and carry it back (it's like a 20 minute walk), which made me feel like an epic failure because some women from developing countries do that like every day and I as completely knackered and then we were off to town on Friday as well!
On the weekend the volunteer usually go to town to get away from the millions of mosquitoes and to just get a break as well. The town is really pretty with lots and lots of sea lions who just sleep everywhere. Adorble.
And the guy is closing now. So I'm afraid I'll have to go.
Blame him!
I hope you're all very well and I'll get in touch next week.
xxx

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